George Clark was instantly at a loss whether to laugh or cry. “My Qiantian Mountain is not some insignificant Defeng City. Even if my uncle isn’t here, even Master would have to show some restraint. Forget it, you wouldn’t understand even if I explained, Senior Brother. As for my cousin, though I won’t kill him this time, I, George Clark, won’t let him off easy either. A piece of trash who can’t even cultivate a shred of inner breath, and yet he gets to be the heir? Are we really going to let a half-blooded bastard with impure lineage inherit the title of Demon King and rule over the million demon clans of Qiantian Mountain?”

As he spoke, George Clark seemed to recall something. On the right side of his face, an ugly blood-red scar appeared, as if it were an old wound. And in George Clark’s eyes, a deep, searing hatred flickered.

“If that boy falls into my hands, I’ll make sure he wishes he were dead!”

Owen remained silent. He had no idea what kind of entanglement or hatred existed between his junior brother and that heir, nor did he care to ask.

He had come to Dragon Marsh Plains for one reason only: to kill!

……

To reach Danling Mountain of Lingyun Sect, one had to cross the Dragon Marsh Plains, traveling all the way to the eastern side of Yunlu. The journey would take another half a month.

Unexpectedly, the carriage sped across the wasteland for five days, and even after leaving the marshy region, the journey remained peaceful. The attacks they had been so wary of never came. Only the oppressive atmosphere, like the calm before a storm, grew heavier and heavier.

Ethan was especially vigilant, standing atop the carriage, suspicious of every shadow. Henry Clark, on the other hand, was calm and composed, staying inside the carriage to cultivate. Even when the carriage occasionally stopped, he never came out.

All three hundred willow-leaf talisman knives had been tested one by one. Only five were kept, carried daily in his sleeve, hidden close to his body.

With his current cultivation, he could no longer advance by nourishing the blades with his spirit. But wearing them every day still enhanced his spiritual sense, with noticeable effect.

The rest of the throwing knives were used for continued practice. He didn’t use inner breath, just monotonously shot them out again and again.

After all, unlike the ironwood throwing knives, these varied in weight and thickness; even the slightest error could cause them to veer off course. Of the three hundred talisman knives, most were meant to help his body adapt to their handling.

For true killing blows, these five were more than enough!

Chapter 011: Blood-Mad Demon Saint

Along with the five throwing knives he kept close, there was also the pine-patterned wind sword.

The Six Spirits Blade Technique, though a throwing knife art, contained secret methods and essentials that worked wonders when applied to other weapons and hidden tools. With a few modifications, they could be adapted for different uses.

Martial arts techniques in the world are countless, with myriad schools and lineages. But in the end, all streams return to the river, all methods converge into one. Many principles are universal.

In his previous life, Henry Clark had already understood this deeply. His thinking was agile and unrestrained by the conservative martial arts views of the past.

Every morning, he would infuse the sword with true qi, circulating it forty-nine times before stopping. After each session, he would wash the sword with clean water and apply beast oil.

Henry Clark called this the Sword Washing Technique. It wasn’t his own invention, but something he learned from a friend renowned for his swordsmanship. He later improved it, incorporating some of the Six Spirits Blade Technique’s secrets.

This could remove impurities, temper the sword, and make the talisman sword spiritually responsive.

Still, whether it was the talisman knives or the wind sword, though they were weapons he had specially prepared for self-defense and killing, they didn’t actually take up much of his time.

During those five days, Henry Clark focused more on his own cultivation. With his qi sea and fetal wheel opened, the gate to martial cultivation was now fully open.

Inside the carriage, a gentle breeze stirred—not from outside the window, but from the ‘fist wind’ generated by Henry Clark, though more often it was just his wide sleeves billowing.

Stepping in a strange pattern, matching it with an equally peculiar breathing rhythm, Henry Clark moved ceaselessly in the cramped space of less than forty square meters.

His fists flew in a chaotic dance, sometimes as fierce as a raging storm, sometimes soft and powerless, seemingly without any discernible pattern.

It looked odd, but only Henry Clark himself could feel that all the blood and qi in his body surged like a torrential flood.

Perhaps if William Harris were here, he would notice something unusual. Even if he couldn’t identify the technique, he would know it was nothing from Qiantian Mountain or Linhai Academy.

Ethan simply assumed Henry Clark was practicing those strange moves again, just like the past few days—only even weirder. When she occasionally returned to the carriage, she would just glance at him and pay no further attention. Because of what happened that day, the girl hadn’t dared to be alone with Henry Clark these past few days.

She had no idea that this bizarre fist technique would soon become famous throughout the world, known as the Fetal Breath Spirit Fist—the top secret of the great Xueyi Temple in the future Saha Realm, the pinnacle of body-refining arts!

Martial arts are divided into internal and external. Cultivating wheel meridian true qi is internal, while this fist technique is external. The guiding technique he created himself was actually of the same nature.

Within the body’s wheels, there are nine meridians: the fetal wheel, breath wheel, marrow wheel, bone wheel, blood wheel, wisdom wheel, organ wheel, viscera wheel, and external wheel.

For a martial artist, opening the body’s wheels means training the fetal breath, the bone marrow, the heart blood, the five organs, the six viscera, and the skin and flesh—ultimately strengthening the body.

From inside out, until the body’s wheels are broken open and connect with heaven and earth. After that, the process reverses: borrowing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, refining the body from outside in—this is the Earth Meridian Nine Wheels.

But even after opening the wheel meridians, the body cannot become strong overnight. It takes time for the effects to show, gradually enhancing the physique bit by bit.